I doubt there are many people who haven`t heard of the online retail giant, Amazon. And as far as affiliate programs go, it has to be one of the most successful companies of all time.

Amazon is in the U.S., the UK, Canada, France, Germany, and Japan, so it is an international company in every respect, though the affiliate schemes run separately for each country.

Amazon is one of the most proactive companies I know of for promoting itself, either through online advertising, or through helping its affiliates to drive traffic to it.

How do you go about joining their affiliate program, or, as Amazon calls it, their Associates Program?

First of all the numbers. Commission rates are stepped from 4% to 8.5% under their `Performance` scheme. It isn't the highest by any means, but, since most people know and trust Amazon, sales can be easier than with other lesser known programs.

Basically there are three ways to set up a site in order to sell Amazon products. Own site; storefront; Amazon`s own web store.

To get commissions from them, you need to sign up to the relevant Associates program for the country you are aiming their products at. That means that if your site is predominantly visited by people from the UK, for example, you need to be an Associate with the UK Amazon program. You can be registered as an Associate with ALL the countries, there`s no limit. If someone from, say, the US, clicks on one of your links, and they end up at the US Amazon site and make a purchase, you won`t receive any commission from that sale, unless you are also registered with the US Amazon, with your appropriate Associates code, or tag, in the link.

If you have your own site you sign up as an Associate, and you will get a code from Amazon which means that links which are created will be tagged with your individual code. Links can also be created through Amazon`s own site, and those links will all automatically contain your code. Unless the code is placed in the link, you won`t get commission from sales, so it`s important to get it set up properly.

If you rent a custom built storefront that means that, depending on who you rent it from, the pages of the site will contain the codes for all the products listed on them; often thousands. If you add any product links yourself, you must make sure the code is in the link.

If you use one of Amazon`s own web stores then they do much of the work on your behalf, but, it doesn`t come cheap for the monthly rental. Sometimes you can try it out with the first month free of charge.

Sites are basically one of two kinds. Either information based, or, of a purely commercial nature. If you keep a blog, you may place your Associates links on it too. In all cases, you are supposed to add the URL you want to add to the Asociates program to your list, so that Amazon can check it out to make sure it is suitable for their program.

Say, for example, you are interested in horses. You own a site which gives advice on buying a horse, caring for them (feeding, stabling etc), perhaps discussing horse shows, breeding and veterinary care. That would probably be viewed by many as an informational type site.

You may then feel that you`d like to promote some of Amazon`s products on your site. Perhaps you`re thinking about books, monthly magazine subscriptions, DVD`s and videos about horses.

By joining Amazon Associates you can then get hold of links to items, or pages which are relevant to the theme of your site, - horses - which visitors will hopefully be interested in, click through to Amazon, and make a purchase, for which you get the commission.

If you are considering a sales-based site, then you have to convince Google that you have some content to make it worthwhile visitors wanting to come to your site. Content really is king, so write articles which bear some relevance to the products you are promoting.

If, for example, your site is based on movies and DVDS, then create articles giving reviews of movies, actors, film previews, the Oscars, award ceremonies, that kind of thing.

Don`t assume that because you are selling Amazon products that you will automatically get visitors who are willing to buy. It requires a lot of hard work. You have to have something visitors will find useful, something even unique to your site, something of real value. Otherwise, they can just simply go straight to Amazon, which of course many do.

Amazon, probably more than any other affiliate scheme, provides a host of useful features to help its Associates. All kinds of links, from text links such as 'Omakase links' which are targeted to suit the content of your site, and 'Product links' which allows you to hand pick specific products.

On top of text links there are a range of banners, of different shapes and sizes which you can use to fit in with your particular site.

Amazon also has aStores which are storefronts for any of its product range. Associates can create up to 100 of these, all for free, containing tracker codes so that anyone going through to Amazon and making a purchase means commission for you, the Associate.

aStores can be `stand-alone` which aren`t usually all that successful - Google don`t normally index aStores. Or, they can be embedded in to your existing site, which is far better.

Finally, take advantage of the Associates Discussion Board. Basically it`s like a forum where problems can be posted, questions can be asked, tips etc can be discussed. There`s almost always someone to offer help, and when you are new to the Associates program you`ll find it invaluable.

__________________
Fancy a breath of fresh camping outdoors? Get the right
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 1 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
:: Low cost web design services from

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 1 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

I have been an amazon associate for a year. Haven't got any commission yet.

Team, have you made some bucks from amazon? using astore?
I need to hear how people use astore to get commission.